By six months, your baby

What can I say about Henri at 6 months?  First of all- look at that face!  Please take the time to click for an even larger view- trust me, that sweet smile is SO worth it!

Henri at 6 months is having a hard time due to some medical stuff I’ll get to in another post.  He’s not on solids yet, not sleeping through the night, not going down well for naps during the day.  He still nurses every 2 hours during the day, goes to bed around 6:30pm, nurses 1-3 times per night (1 is the average, either around 11-12 or around 3-5am usually), then wakes between 6-7am.  He won’t go down for a nap without nursing to sleep (or crying himself to sleep), but luckily when he wakes at night, nursing gets him back to bed within 20 minutes.

Henri at 6 months is the sweetest, smilingest, happiest little boy ever.  With everything he’s going through, always in pain, itchy, etc, he would be perfectly justified in being cranky, crabby and sullen.  Instead he is so bright and happy, only fusses when hungry and only cries when going for a nap.  He smiles even easier than Jakob (never would have thought it possible!) and will charm anyone and everyone.  He flirts shamelessly, which he probably gets from both of his parents.

Henri at 6 months is still Jakob’s best friend.  Jakob loves showing off his brother and insists on holding him or rocking his car seat.  He shares all his toys and we had a minor crisis the other night when Jakob was going to bed and I lay next to him in bed for a quick snuggle.  He moved over about 6″, patted the space in between us and said “Henri, here.  Henri, lie down.  Henri, dodo here”.  I tried to explain that Henri was already asleep in his own room, but Jakob wouldn’t understand why we couldn’t just go get him, and was only distracted by his other favorite thing- fish.  (Specifically bath toys, an octopus, shark and whale, this time).

Henri at 6 months is adorable and I can’t wait to get to know him more each day.

Catching up slowly will never work, too much time has passed.  So expect a bunch of rambling posts until I get out everything I want to share. 

This post covers Henri’s weekly photos.

Mommy with Henri at 23 weeks old.

It was a rainy day and my bangs were not obeying, so please ignore the wilted, stringy look!  🙂

Mommy with Henri at 24 weeks old.

Ugh.  I remember when this photo was taken- Henri had been screaming in my arms for over an hour, and had finally fallen asleep.  I’d been sobbing, him too, hence our red faces.  His belly was hurting and he kept arching and couldn’t get comfortable, didn’t want to nurse…nothing made him feel better, and once he finally fell asleep I was too afraid to move, so I propped him up with a nursing pillow and just sat there, watching TV for the next hour until he woke up.  I like those moments- cuddling my sleeping baby- but I wish he’d fallen asleep peacefully instead of after such horrible crying.

Mommy with Henri at 25 weeks old.

Mommy with Henri at 26 weeks old.

Mommy with Henri at 27 weeks old (today).

…is there anybody out there…

Posts coming.  Photos coming.  Lots coming.  Stay tuned!

Happy Father’s Day!

Mommy with Henri at 22 weeks old.

Week 22 brought a visit to the local Children’s Hospital to try and help Henri with his ezcema.  We met with a wonderful doctor and got some ideas for treatment, and will be following up in 6 weeks.  I’m not super-thrilled about using Cortisone on him, but between that and the aquaphor, his skin looks amazing.  Unfortunately the antihistamine is doing nothing for his itchiness (or his sleep!) but maybe that will come with time.  Until then he is going to be kept in long pants or sleepers, 100% cotton only.

Saturday night we decided to surprise Jakob by setting up his big-boy bed!  We still had the bed in his room from when it was a spare-bedroom, and we lie with him on it to read when putting him down for naps or bed.  I went around baby-proofing his room (in case he got out of bed- like putting the fish on a hutch instead of his night table!) and set up the side rails, and in the afternoon I took a photo of him doing his last nap in his crib.

We waited until I’d put Henri to bed before showing Jakob his bed all set up.  He was so excited! 

I’m not sure if it was because he had both of us with him, or if he actually understood what was going on. 

After about 10 minutes of playing, I left so Yannick could do their bedtime routine.  What normally takes 45 minutes (Yannick likes to cuddle/unwind with Jakob) took about 15, and within 15 more minutes Jakob was snoring!  (Usually he will stay up and talk/play for up to an hour or so).  I went in to check on him and he’d taken all of his bedtime toys, put them into his crib and was sound asleep.

Yay!  I’m so proud of our big boy!  I only switched him over because he asked me.  When we were up north last weekend and we put him to bed in a playpen, he kept pointing to the bed in that room and saying “do-do, do-do!”.  We are going to keep the crib in the room for a few weeks until we are sure that he doesn’t try to get out all night or have any problems, but so far he has been great!

He stayed in bed all night long but clearly by his choice, as in the morning when I woke him I asked if he wanted to eat and he perked right up, slid out of bed and ran to the door so he could go eat breakfast.

This weekend we celebrated our cousin Robyn’s son Mackenzie’s first birthday!  Yay Mack!  We had a great time at the party and seeing all of our family.  We even got to see friends we hadn’t seen in a long time, like Tara, Kate-the-Enabler, and Mona.  We had to rush out without dessert though, as we had dinner plans at Yannick’s sister’s place.  I made a really cool dessert but I forgot to take a photo of it, so I’ll post about it when I get the photo from Yannick’s sister.

I’d love to share some knitting photos- but there hasn’t been any knitting lately.  I am actually able to commit to the gym, and have gone 6 days/week for the last 2.5 weeks.  I go every day but Sunday.  As such, I somehow end up losing half my day and by the time I have all my daily stuff done and the kids put to bed and dinner eaten and maybe some chit chat with Yannick, I find it is already almost 11 or later, and I need to get to bed.  I am going to try to take some ME time over the next few days to have something to show you, especially since a) I miss it, b) I have projects I NEED to complete, and c) this is supposed to be a knitting/craft/stuff I make blog!

By five months, your baby…

…should be able to:

– hold head steady when upright – CHECK

– on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms – somewhat

– pay attention to an object as small as a raisin – CHECK

– squeal in delight – CHECK

– reach for an object – CHECK – and it ends up in his mouth!

– smile spontaneously – CHECK

– smile back when you smile – CHECK – non stop!

– grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers – CHECK

– keep head level with body when pulled to sitting – CHECK

…will probably be able to:

– roll over (one way) – CHECK – he can roll from  his back to his stomach, since he was about 3 months old

– bear some weight on legs – CHECK – he LOVES to stand and can support his own weight

– say “ah-goo” or similar vowel-consonant combinations – CHECK

– razz (make a wet razzing sound) – CHECK – started today!

– turn in the direction of a voice – CHECK

…may possibly be able to:

– sit without support – nope!

…may even be able to:

– pull up to standing position from sitting – kinda.  When he’s sitting in my lap facing me, he pushes up with his legs to make himself stand.  That’s different from pulling up, though

– stand holding on to someone or something – I don’t think he can stand without help supporting his weight

– object if you try to take a toy away – CHECK if you count holding tighter to keep it.  Neither he nor Jakob ever objected negatively to having something taken away.  (Well, Jakob does NOW, but never when younger)

– pass a cube or other object from one hand to the other – not really

– rake with fingers a tiny object and pick it up in fist – dunno- never tried

– babble, combining vowels and consonants such as ga-ga-ga, ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, da-da-da – CHECK for babbling, but never a consistant set of consonants

Henri at 5 months is getting better, but still frustrating.  I really need to go back and check Jakob’s progress to see if I’m expecting too much out of Henri.  He is still not napping consistantly (same time each day) and his nights aren’t perfect.  He always goes to bed at 7 and wakes at 7 the next day, but 3 nights of the week maybe he’ll need a top off feed at 8:30, but then sleep straight to 1am, then after feeding sleep right to 7am.  Other nights he’ll sleep from 7:30pm until 12:00am, feed, then wake again at 3am, then maybe again at 5 or 6, or maybe he’ll go right through until  7.  If he wakes after a few hours of sleep then I nurse him back to sleep and he’s out cold right away.  He doesn’t wake up and stay up.  If he’s just fed within an hour or two then I try to rock him back to bed without feeding.  It might take up to 20 minutes, but I’m usually successful.

His personality is still wonderful.  For everything that he’s going through (teeth, ezcema, a non-stop growth spurt- I imagine growing does cause pain) he is such a smiley, happy little boy.  He only cries when something is wrong, and if he is crabby and won’t sleep, or wakes after 10 minutes, if I leave him in bed he’ll cry.  If I take him out he instantly brings out the smile and the charm.  He’s a flirt and loves attention.  He has no problem being pawed over by other babies since Jakob grabs at him whenever possible and he loves it.

We’re still working on his ezcema, but his 4th (!!!!) tooth has cut through and hopefully once the other 2 that are swollen come out that will relieve at least one of his discomforts.  He’s growing out of outfits faster than I can wash them, and already I’ve put away most of the stuff Jakob wore until 12 months or so, because either Henri is too big already, or it will fit now, but is a Fall/Winter outfit and I wouldn’t subject him to that in the summertime.

Mommy with Henri at 20 weeks.

I have no idea what I did last week.  I know I got NOTHING accomplished.  Maybe some laundry, some cooking too.  I remember whipping up some butter toffee pecans for Yannick to bring to my dad’s surprise birthday poker game.  I know Yannick worked a lot so I was home with the boys a lot, plus my mom still comes by on Tuesdays and Thursdays to see the kids and to help out.  Especially Thursdays ‘cus Yannick works late.

I can’t think of anything else I did. 

I LOVE this photo of Henri.  I feel like I should find the smiling one cuter, but for some reason this pose melts my heart.  I feel like this is what he’ll look like as a teenager…he looks too old!

Jakob got a pair of Superman pjs for his birthday, complete with Velcro’d cape.  You can’t see it ‘cus his arm is in the way, but it even has airbrushed “abs”!  He only wore them to run around, though, ‘cus my skinny pisher has such narrow hips that the shorts kept falling to the ground.

On Tuesday my mom picked Jakob up from daycare, and when she got home with him they had a friend with them- she’d bought Jakob his first fish!  Of course his name is Nemo since Jakob has watched Finding Nemo at least 10 times since getting it at his party.  We had a small battle when he didn’t understand why he couldn’t open the bowl and play with Nemo, but now he knows that the fishie is for looking at with his eyes only, and not his hands.  My mom also brought a glass fish with the air bubble floating ball just in case the original Nemo doesn’t make it!

Mommy with Henri at 21 weeks.

I know- you’re thinking this is crazy!  A weekly photo posted on time!  On the actual day-of!  What can I say?  I’m neglecting my laundry, cleaning and supper to post this photo.  Don’t say I never think of you!  🙂

Can you read Jakob’s shirt?  It says “Still Living With My Parents”.  LOL

Finally, a big thank you to my cousin Amy, who totally went out of her way to bring me this gorgeous yarn as a thank-you to me for helping her with her knitting and sewing.  It was my pleasure and this was totally unnecessary…but I’m still looking forwards to having it on my feet!!!

I’ve been thinking of you…dear blog…dear blog readers.  I’m still here, still alive.  Barely.  LOL. 

I took it upon myself to start at a gym.  And I don’t mean 15 minutes walking slowly on a treadmill reading a romance novel.  I mean 60 minutes of deadlifting free weights, lunges, squats, rows, chinups, pullups, dips, etc.  (alternating lower and upper body days).  I have gone every day since Monday for one hour each time.  I am FREAKING sore along my outer thighs and hips and bum.  I actually need to hold the bannister on the stairs for assistance.  Feel free to laugh- I have been!

Coupled with this new health kick comes the end of sleep for Henri.  Napping?  Who needs it?  Night time?  Ha!  What is this thing you speak of?

It takes me a minimum of 30 minutes to get him down for a nap, and up to 2 hours at bedtime.  I’ll nurse him, he’s out cold until the very last second when BAM the eyes open, he arches, sees the light from my alarm clock…then it’s all over.  If I hurry to rock him I can get him into the dozy mood, but it will take at least 20 more minutes until he’s out enough that I can put him down with those eyes opening.  If it is bedtime then repeat this process at least twice.  Plus then he wakes at least twice over night…

Plus he’s got such bad ecema that he looks like his whole body is sunburnt.  He’s itchy and the antihistamine doesn’t seem to be doing anything, and this is a non-cortisone week.  (But we’re seeing a specialist next Wed).

Plus he just cut his 3rd(!!!!) tooth and has 3 more ready to pop any day now.  (So hopefully that will ease the pain soon).

Plus I don’t know if the arching is his acid reflux, if he even has AR, or what.  (So I’ve cut out dairy and will do so for a week and see if it makes a difference.  I doubt he’s allergic but at least it will rule out the possibility).

The exhaustion and dread that comes with each time I need to get him to sleep, plus my exhaustion and soreness from the gym leads to a life lately that is quite boring, hence nothing to post.  And no real time to post in.  I haven’t even knit a stitch since that deadline I had before Jakob’s party a few weeks ago.  I keep meaning to…but…eh.  Too tired.  Too sore.  Too stressed.

Here’s to hoping for better sleep all around…for Henri, for me, and for you guys out there.  Waiter- bring us a round of sleep!

I must be tired, that was supposed to be funny.

My day so far:

12:00am- feed Henri.  Grumble because this is the first time in a week he’s needed to eat between 8:30am and at least 3:30pm.  Go back to bed.

2:20am- wake to Henri crying.  Annoyed that I’ll have to feed him or rock him for long enough that feeding is the preferred option.  Go to his room to realize he’s crying because he’s pooped right through his diaper and pjs.  Clean everything up and feed him.  Go back to bed.

6:40am- wake to Henri crying.  Slightly miffed that he didn’t go until at least 7:30 so I could keep him up a bit.  Don’t want 6:40 to be his new “morning wakeup” time so decide to nurse him back to sleep.  Find out that he’s pooped through his diaper, pjs and swaddle blanket this time.  Clean everything up and feed him.  Go back to bed and completely miss Yannick getting up, getting Jakob up, their breakfast time and them leaving the house.

8:30-ish- wake to Henri talking.  Stay in bed another 20 minutes while he plays then remember that it’s better to give him his acid-reflux meds at least 30 min before a feed, and he’ll want to eat soon, so go in, change him, and give him his stuff.  Take him out to play for a bit.

9:15-ish- try to feed Henri.  He seems to feel that the small amounts of Di-V-Sol, Tempra and Atarax plus his Prevacid equals enough of a meal, and only takes a few sips per side.  Play some more.

10:15-ish- Nurse Henri to sleep and put him down for a nap.  Spend 45 minutes reading blogs and putting laundry in the machine before realizing I’m still tired.

11:15- get into bed to try and nap a bit.

12:30: get woken by Henri playing in his crib.  Get up, change him, decide to feed him so I can put him down to play on his mat then I’ll be able to have some lunch.

1:15- feed Henri.  Put him on his mat.  Cut up tomato for salad.  Go back to Henri ‘cus his teether slipped out and he’s hysterical.  Cut up chicken for salad.  Soothe Henri again.  Tear up some lettuce.  Soothe Henri again.  Toss in some walnuts.  Go back to Henri, try giving him more Tempra to help his teething.  Mix salad with some dressing.  Notice Henri extremely fussy, think he’s probably tired (it’s 1:45 at this point).  Rock him to sleep.

2:00- decide to bring in the mail before eating my salad.  Discover almost a hundred baby spiders have been born on my open mailbox.  FREAK OUT.  Call Yannick to see what to do.  Hang up on him laughing.  Call my mom to see if she’s going out and can come handle it.  Call Maaike for same. 

2:15- Henri wakes up.  He’s acting hungry but I don’t want to give in and feed him so close to the last feed.  I reswaddle and put him back in bed with some music.

2:30- I take a few bites of salad while trying to figure out what to do about the spiders.  Hairspray and an open flame seem like a good idea, but I’d probably burn down my house while the spiders roam free.  Henri keeps fussing, which turns to crying.

2:45- I give in and feed him.  He takes another 15 minutes on each side before passing out.  Huh.  I guess he was hungry. 

3:15- I change into tight clothes and grab my perfume spray and a broom and head out to tackle the spiders.  Then I come back in and change.  Why the %*$% is Henri up again?  He should be out cold!

3:30- I give up completely and settle in front of my bloglines to feed Henri, who apparently hasn’t been fed all day, as he takes 10 minutes on one side, then almost 20 on the other before seeming sated enough to remove and put into bed.

4:00- I put the clothes from the washer into the dryer and put in a new load of laundry.

4:15- I remember I’d wanted to comment on some blog posts and decide to do it now that my hands are free.  I squeeze in this blog post too.  I still haven’t eaten my salad.

I’ve got max 1 hour before I need to leave to get Jakob.  I’m hoping to spend it parked on the couch ignoring everything around me (assuming Henri sleeps).

How was your day so far?

Today is Jakob’s birthday party.  A week of running around, planning, shopping, cleaning, baking and stressing has nearly come to an end.  It was fun…but I’m so glad birthdays come only once a year!  (Although I did learn how to decorate a cake with fondant…photos coming after the party).  A few more hours and I can finally get some rest.  I’m drooling just thinking about my pillow!

Here’s a photo of Henri from last week to tide you over.  Does this kid really look 19 weeks old?!?